Sahadeva sounds off: “I’m not one to criticize, but apple’s website, both its store and its general experience, pales in comparison to their physical stores in terms of experience.”

Apple’s website surely lacks that ‘omph’ (or ‘YO’ if you’re a Randy Jackson kind of guy) of their physical store. But I remember going on apple.com and researched for MacBook a few months ago, and it gave me exactly what I wanted (features, specs, product photos, retail price) in a clear (and humorous) way, wrapped in clean, slick and wholesome design.

(the bubbly tab menu looks plastic. But everything below looks sleek and clean and clear)

But Sahadeva thinks there should be more - “Why not make their whole website a showcase of the killer stuff you can do on a mac, with only 20% of the space allocated to the products themselves?” Sure they can, but only if they can justify the return for the investment. Apple is selectively spending their time and money on making certain sections on their site more engaging: they hired the Cuban Council crew for some good ol’ Flash demo for their Airport Extrem; and iPhone is getting the royal treatment on Apple’s site with impressive interactive demos (I wonder how much NBC paid to be featured in the demo… are interactive demos the new medium for product placements??).

The only consumer product company I can think of that pushes the boundary of the mystical web is Nike, whose interactive agency hires all the cool design kids. But my complaint there is that I can’t find any basic information on Nike’s site. When I think of a good consumer product company website, with clear information and good design - I think of Apple. Try another company of its caliber, say, Adobe, and you’ll appreciate how Apple does the basic really, really well.

BUT: while Apple’s got its brochure site down pat, I’m convinced that they have no idea what to do with the big bad web. This is evident in their poorly designed online store and their silly little .Mac. But then again, the web is not Apple’s game, and their web stuff probably does not figure into so much of Apple’s revenue stream for Steve Jobs to stay up at night. And I’m not sure if that’s such a bad thing.

It’s silly to ponder these things on a Friday evening.